Pirates rally to top Vikings and sweep playoff series
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Long Beach | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 0 |
|
Orange Coast | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | X | 3 | 8 | 1 |
LONG BEACH -- The Orange Coast College baseball team used a pair of late-inning runs to slip past Long Beach City College, 3-2, on Saturday to sweep past the Vikings and advance to the next round of the Southern California Regional playoffs.
Saturday's won, on the heels of Friday's 18-3 win moves the 10th seeded Pirates (23-15) into next weekend's Super Regionals. Next week's opponent and location of contest will be determined after all of the games have been played and all remaining teams get re-seeded.
Coast trailed 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning (OCC was home team for Game 2) when the rally began. Stephen Corona led off with a single to right and pinch-runner Robert Longtree moved up to second base after a sacrifice bunt by James McLellan. A single by Stefan Panayiotou put runners on the corners and Nick Grimes followed with a perfectly-placed squeeze bunt, scoring Longtree and tying the game at 2.
In the bottom of the eighth, Jeff Nellis led off with a single to left field for the Pirates and moved up to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Chaneng Varela -- OCC's sixth sacrifice of the afternoon. Two batters later, Jack Kruger came through with an RBI-single to center, scoring Nellis to put Coast ahead, 3-2.
That would be enough as reliever Scott Serigstad (5-3) came in and threw five innings of two-hit, shutout baseball, walking none and striking out six to collect the win.
For the seventh-seeded Vikings (20-18), champions of the Western State Conference's South Division, pitcher Julian Griego went the distance, but took the hardluck loss, allowing three runs on eight hits with one strikeout. Tanner Levine went 2-for-4 with a run scored, while Robert Castaneda drove in both runs in the top of the fourth with a bloop-single to right.
Nellis, Kruger and Corona each had two hits for Coast.
